The Great Demonic War
Many years ago, the Demon Lord along with his 66 apostles invaded the over-world with the sole intent of wiping out the human race. They almost succeeded.
Not even the strongest generals and adventurer could stop the Demon Lord's army. The human king was brutally murdered during the slaughter.
Humanity was thankfully saved by nine, incredibly young, heroes. Talented individuals, all from different backgrounds but were all blessed with the most powerful skill trees known to man.
Back then, they were simply known as the "Nine Heroes".
They united together and defeated the Demon Lord who fled back to the demon dimension along with his remaining apostles.
Knowing that the injured Demon Lord would strike again if left to recover, the nine heroes charged into the demon world. With The Holy Paladin: Arthur leading the fight, they effortlessly won the battle.
However, just before the Demon Lord died, he unleashed one final curse upon the land.
A curse that filled the world with clones, "fakes" as they call it, of each of the Nine Heroes. These fakes would look exactly like one of the nine heroes, have the same voice and would even own an identical copy of their skill tree. Each of them would have a number imprinted on them, signifying what number they were.
I am one of those fakes. My name is Aria0217. I am a product of the Demon Lord's curse. I share the same face and voice as The Heavenly Angel: Aria...but I am not her.
Once the curse was activated, all demons vanished from existence along with the demon world.
According to the Nine Heroes, the Demon Lord was eerily silent during his dying breath
"He said nothing as if his lips were sealed. Nor did his expression show any sort of emotion." Stated The Evil Villainess: Elizabeth.
Was it our of spite? A last ditch effort to ruin the lives of the nine heroes who defeated him?
It's important to note that the nine heroes attacked the Demon Lord as soon as they saw him activating the curse. Most of the heroes were convinced that the curse must've simply malfunctioned due to their interruption.
But most humans disagreed.
They called it the "Fake Massacre".
As beings who were created by the Demon Lord, the fakes were naturally hunted down by all the humans who cried out for vengeance.
Hundreds of fakes were slaughtered and many were even used as slaves since their faces were identical to the Nine Heroes who had all become incredibly popular .
Most of the nine heroes choose to remain neutral during these hunts. All expect one: The Divine Healer: Yukari. She stood up against this and defended the fakes.
"THIS IS NOT JUSTICE! THIS IS MASSACRE!" Yukari yelled to the entire kingdom, "THEY'RE HUMANS! JUST LIKE US!"
She wasn't the only one who protested. The main head of the church, The Holy Shield: Father Paul stood up along aside Yukari in defending the fakes much to the church's dismay.
Even General Enri: The Water Dragoon supported the movement.
With their shared influence, they went through many legal battles. In the end, the Original Yukari successfully managed to pass down a law that made killing or enslaving fakes illegal. Things significantly improved over the years after that.
But of course, just because it is printed in the law, does not mean it changes the heart of the people.
...
-I-I-I-I-
...
"Congratulations, you are now a summoner."
It was the the old man's voice. The giant glass ball looked exactly the same as before and its reflective surface displayed my appearance. The small wings on my back... they were gone.
"H-how much time has passed?"
"About a few seconds."
So time did move differently in there.
Nothing about my clothing or appearance had changed but there was one subtle difference. I felt... heavier somehow.
The father of the church was standing near the exit, waiting patiently for me.
My head lowered itself awkwardly towards him, "T-thank you so much...for helping me out earlier."
He stared at me for a few moments. Once again, he held an expression that was impossible to read.
Finally, he spoke, "May I give you a piece of advice?"
Slightly confused but curious, I nodded.
"You are not the first fake to come here and ask for a reset."
My eyes couldn't help but flinch a little as I stuttered, "Really?"
"Yes. Unfortunately, that was a while ago and I do not know where they are now." He continued, "but this isn't the only church and there are other ways to reset. While it is incredibly rare for fakes to voluntarily seek a new skill tree, they do exist."
The thought of that never even occurred to me before.
"You have taken a step that most of your kind will never have the courage to do. This easily makes you one of the few rare fakes who have chosen to create their own path... well done."
That... was the first compliment I had ever received from a human.
"But as you know, this world is very cruel to your kind. I recommend finding others who have done the same as you."
...
-I-I-I-I-
...
I left the church with an unexpected new goal in mind. Not that I actually knew where to start looking but it was still an objective besides progressing my new skill tree.
I tried my best to avoid the markets and not to stand out. Looking for the exit of Bostina has never felt this long before.
The tense atmosphere and the judgmental eyes of the church made me so nervous that it wasn't until after I had completely left the church did the feeling of adrenaline finally start to kick in. There was something truly exciting about seeing what my own, brand new, personal skill tree was going to look like for the first time. No longer would I be staring at someone else's skill tree that didn't belong to me.
As the humans like to say, I was finally turning over a new le-
A leaf slapped me in the face. No, not a metaphorical one. A literal leaf slapped me in the face. I wanted to grab it because it seemed unusually big, but the leaf got carried by the wind and flew away.
Hopefully, that wasn't a sign of bad luck.
My mind quickly forgot about it as my ears began to hear loud shouting and yelling.
Unconsciously going on several detours to avoid certain areas had led me here. Nearby a large crowd. A large crowd of fakes.
But they weren't Aria fakes like me. They were Yukari fakes.
It was an incredibly large crowd. Significantly larger than the crowd of Aria fakes who tried to get into the orphanage I saw the other day which wasn't surprising. Since the original Yukari openly claimed that she defended us, Yukari fakes were a lot more common. It was truly unfortunately, that almost every Yukari fake took advantage of the original's kindness and used her as an excuse to justify their behaviour.
Once I saw the building they were trying to get into, the incredibly large crowd made a lot of sense.
Fakes didn't only just target the originals, they would also target any location that remotely related to the original hero's origins. For example, the home of their families.
"MOTHER! FATHER! ITS ME, YOUR DAUGHTER!"
"THIS IS MY HOME! LET ME IN!" Cried one of them.
"I USED TO LIVE HERE!"
Once again, there were multiple guards stopping them. If it weren't for the soldiers, the Yukari fakes would probably smash through the windows. They begged, cried and screamed for access into the building.
The building itself was fairly large. It was a two story building and just above what middle class families would live in. Considering Yukari's reputation, their family could probably afford a rich mansion on some private land. So why live here in the main city?
They've tried to tolerate the fakes' behaviour but that only exacerbated the issue. I wouldn't be surprised if they've already planned on moving at this point.
It was then I noticed the surrounding townspeople staring at them in disgust. Some had theirs hands covering their face as if suffering from second hand embarrassment, parents were telling their children not to look and most just whispered gossips and insults to each other. Honestly, Who can blame them.
While it was common for me, I understood why it could be such an unpleasant sight for the humans.
But how can I judge those Yukari fake... when I used to be just like them. I used to be in that crowd. I understood the desperation in their eyes.
You see, while us fakes weren't born with the original's full memories, we were still given tiny fragments of their memories. Fragments so small and blurry that they might as well mean nothing...yet for us fakes, they meant everything. They were more than enough to awaken our unending desire to chase after what was not ours.
There was a small child in the window on the second floor. Most likely the original Yukari's little sister. I wasn't the only one who spotted her. Soon all the Yukari fakes noticed her and began calling out to her.
"Yuzu! It's me! YOUR SISTER!" Yelled one of the fakes.
"PLEASE LET YOUR SISTER IN!"
"DON'T YOU RECOGNISE ME!?"
The little girl's eyes went wide with overwhelming dread, her small body shivered in absolute horror and fear. It didn't take long for her mother to show up and pull her away from the window.
"Poor child..." I mumbled to myself. Seeing an entire of crowd of people who all looked exactly like your older sister, begging to break into your house like a horde of hungry goblins must be incredibly traumatising for the girl.
There were a few glaring eyes aimed at me now. I had been staring for too long. My legs began moving on their own while my eyes were still staring at the begging crowd of desperate crying Yukari fakes until they eventually left my line of sight.
...
-I-I-I-I-
...
Outside the main city was a huge camp. A camp mainly inhabited by fakes and homeless humans. Fakes mostly slept here because even if a fake was lucky enough to find an Inn keeper willing to take them in, they wouldn't be able to afford it.
To call it a camp would also a bit inaccurate since that would imply some sort of unity or shared purpose. It was more like an unofficial, common area where individuals or groups just so happen to stay at. Fakes and spots for tents would constantly come and go so it was first come first serve.
Most of the tents were old, and worn out. Some even looked worse than the tent I had.
Since it was still the middle of the day, the camp itself wasn't so crowded. It usually gets more lively at night when the horde of fakes give up on trying to invade certain buildings.
As for the fakes who were here already, most of them were just standing or sitting around. From the outside, it may have looked like they were doing nothing but they were all probably looking at their skill trees, trying to find any sort of hint or clue on how to unlock the next skills. That was something that even the humans did.
Other fakes were continuously repeating the same beginner skills, desperately hoping that using it 100 more times would unlock something. There were even a few fakes who were reenacting speeches that the Nine Heroes once spoke, trying to make sure their personalities, accents and tone of voice matched the original's as much as possible.
There were a few fires here and there. Each one had a small group of fakes and homeless humans huddling around it for warmth.
There was no name for this place. However, it did have a reputation for being the place where the rejected lived. If you lived here, you were considered a failure, lower than city trash.
As I navigated through the camp, my eyes anxiously searched for a good spot. My hands were fidgeting with my hair while my legs could not stop moving.
Finally, I found a spot.
I hastily set up my worn out tent. My fingers shook with excitement which lead to many mistakes.
"Ok, ok, ok, ok..." It felt as if each moment that went by was a waste of precious seconds.
Finally, it was done. There were multiple holes on its blue walls but I hastily entered and laid down. I could barely fit in but I was already used to that.
I tightly clutched my medium sack, took in a deep breath, looked up at the ceiling of the tent... and opened my new skill tree.
As usual, boxes filled with text and small icons appeared all over my line of vision.
For a split second, I thought I would see the same old skill tree I had before.
But it was different. Very different. Even the shape of the tree was different.
My lips instantly split apart and stars glittered across my eyes.
"Whoa..."
It was VERY different. Nothing like the original Aria's skill tree. It was beautiful in an entirely different way.
I refrained from squealing in excitement. I had to calm down and focus.
This was it. This was the beginning of my new life.
I went straight into reading. But the moment I began to read, I instantly notice a very peculiar detail that brought me great confusion.
"Primary Weapon: Sword and Shield?" I repeated out loud, "Huh?"
I picked Summoner right? Why is my main weapon the same as a tank role? Did I choose the wrong one? No, that can't be. The word "Summoner" was on the top. So why am I using a sword and shield?
Wait, first I had to check out my first skills. I only had two unlocked at the moment.
...
Aria0217's Skills:
Chance Damage (Passive): Your Sword Strikes have a 5% chance of doing additional damage which equals up to 1% of your defence.
Sword Strike (Active): Deals 10 damage to target. CD: 5 Minutes.
...
"Sword Strike...CD is 5 minutes meaning I can only use it once every five minutes...the passive is pretty much useless...but this is pretty much what I expected from starter skills."
I ignored the numbers. Unless you're able to see your own stats, dealing "10 damage" means nothing to you. You need a special item or skill to see stats so for most people, the numbers are only useful as a way to gauge which skills does more or less damage.
"This... was not what I imagined when I picked summoner."
Skills trees could be very different from one another even if they shared the same name but this was still quite shocking. I was imagining something more like a mage type who summoned pets using a book or wand.
Speaking of summoning skills...
"...shied enhance...taunting chain...round domain...final reckoning...divine judgment..." I mumbled to myself as I skimmed through the the upper future skills. There are no descriptions for skills you haven't unlocked so you can only guess what they do from their name alone, "Weird... there doesn't seem to be a single summoning skill."
To be clear, that does not mean there aren't any. Another issue that makes skill trees so hard to progress through is that most of your future aren't visible until you unlock them.
I was really hoping that my first skill would be a summoning one considering the name.
"Guess I'll still have to fight alone for now."
I tried shaking the negativity out of my head. I haven't even started training or testing anything so it was way too early to start complaining now.
All skill trees start off weak. That's universal. However, before my reset, I spent my whole life, stuck near the bottom of Aria's skill tree with no hope of progressing. But now that I had a completely new one.
I don't have to unlock my skills by living through someone else's life. Just thinking about that managed to raise my spirits a little.
I looked through one of the holes in my tent. It was almost evening now.
Should I sleep early today? That could help me ignore the growing hunger in my stomach. I had already eaten a piece from my soggy loaf of bread but it seemed to only make me feel sick.
"Yeah... perhaps that would be wiser."
I switched my skill tree off and continued looking out the holes in my tent. I began thinking and imagining about my first summon. What would it be like? When will I get it?
The truth was: I was pretty lonely. So the idea of summoning was something I looked forward to.
Most fakes usually gather together in groups to survive. I never did that.
I was a lot more shy compared to other fakes. I would sometimes receive help from other fakes from time to time but I never permanently joined a group. It was another reason to call me a coward. Despite my choice to remain solo, I hated being alone and I didn't have anyone to blame but myself for that... but even now... I still...
"I...I still wish I had a friend."
A bell sound suddenly rang from inside my ears. A sound I hadn't heard in a long time.
A box of text appeared in front of me.
...
You have unlocked a new summoning slot: 0/0 - to - 0/1.
New skill unlocked: The First Knight.
...
I instantly sat straight up upon reading this. That itself was a terrible move since I hit my head on the ceiling of the tent which almost brought the whole thing down.
"A-already?"
The previous adrenaline in me that had just calmed down had suddenly reignited.
Activate skill? The box of text asked.
Without thinking twice, my mind mentally clicked yes, but then I realised, "W-wait, shouldn't I do this outside?"
Too late. The summoning had begun.
A small ball of light appeared in front of me.
I laid there, watching in nervous anticipation.
The small ball of light floated in the air for a few seconds before it began to slowly descend to my lap.
Once it made its gentle landing, the ball of light faded away, revealing what was inside.
A soft gasp escaped my mouth.
...
...
To be continued.
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This chapter was published on the 19/03/2022 but was later edited on the 19/04/2023
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